Marine Fliers Tried to Hide Evidence, Prosecutors Say

Two Marine aviators facing courts-martial after their jet severed ski lift cables and caused the deaths of 20 people in Italy tried to hide or destroy a videotape shot during the flight in February, military prosecutors allege.

The Marines--Capt. Richard Ashby of Mission Viejo and Capt. Joseph Schweitzer of Westbury, N.Y.--waived their rights to separate military hearings into charges of obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The fliers will be tried on obstruction-of-justice charges at their courts-martial, Marine Corps officials said Monday.

“Government counsel will now request of the court that these additional charges be joined to the courts-martial currently scheduled,” officials at the U.S. Marine Corps Atlantic command, based in Norfolk, Va., said in a statement.

Ashby, a Marine pilot, and Schweitzer, his navigator, were at the controls of an EA-6B Prowler on a low-level training mission from an Aviano, Italy, air base when their jet hit the lift cables, sending a gondola packed with skiers plunging to the ground.

Ashby, 31, and Schweitzer, 30, were initially charged with negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter charges after a military investigation into the mishap.

They face life in military prison if convicted.

Charges were dismissed against two crew members in the electronic surveillance jet’s back seats, which are walled off from the front of the cockpit by an array of radar jamming, surveillance and targeting equipment.

On Sept. 1, military prosecutors filed new charges alleging that the two fliers approached one of the back-seat officers, Capt. Chandler Seagraves, seeking help in removing a videotape from the jet’s cockpit and hiding or destroying what could be a critical piece of evidence in the case.

Ashby’s court-martial is scheduled to begin Dec. 7, and Schweitzer’s trial is set to open Jan. 4 at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. A pretrial hearing is set for Oct. 1.

A military judge who recommended court-martial proceedings against the pilot and navigator has questioned whether they would be found guilty because supervisory error played a major role in the accident.